Downtown Lakeland Partnership Marketing Meeting

July 8, 2009

Attending: Andy Cowper, Julie Townsend, Lori Powell, Jim Doig, Chris @ Harry’s, Natalie Pope, Gloria Brooke, Bill Hatten, Ellen Simms, Kay Morgan, Dylan Daniels, Lakeland Community Theater (3), Becky DeBatts, Eric Belvin, Florida Dance Theater, Critter Watcher.

Julie called the meeting to order at 8:08AM. Introductions were made and minutes of June Marketing Meeting were approved.

Events: A review of First Friday took place. Noted was the great turnout at the July 3^rd event. The rides were not ready at 4:00, so there were some complaints about that from people arriving at that time with children. Gloria suggested more children’s activities, as well as having more personnel in the DLP booth…it was too hard to handle all requests with only one person manning it. She also mentioned that the booth needed to be spruced up a bit and include more information including our mission statement. We are still collecting emails and to date have 1,450 in our database. The next First Friday is the “Dogs Days of Summer” and will include look-a-like contests, costume parades, obedience demons, etc. September’s FF will be our annual “Salute to Educators.”

The First Annual Beer Fest for Downtown Lakeland is in the planning stages and the target date is February 2010. Eric Belden of Linkster’s is helping the DLP with this event. There is an Orlando Beer Fest meeting that they will be attending to garner more information. Julie met with LPD and the budget for security may not be as high as originally predicted. She also in checking on insurance.

Downtown at Dusk: Festivities will take place on Tuesday, July 14 at Broke Pottery from 5:30-7:00.

Taste of Downtown: This new event is schedule for July 17 at the Lake Mirror Towers.

Newsletter: The new concept is a 16 page, 4-color, glossy piece with a map and legend in the center for easy use. Julie passed around a similar copy so we would have an idea of what ours will look like.

Website: The new site is up and running. For those who did not get the hands on training, a print out is available with instructions on how to manage your portion of the website.

Goodie Bags: The budget prohibits the DLP from purchasing more bags at this time. Perhaps the LDDA will be bale to help offset the costs in the future.

Julie passed out the marketing objectives for 2009/2010 and discussion followed. We went around the table and discussed what works best for each of our marketing plans.

DLP Luncheon: Our event is fast approaching and we need to decide if it will remain a luncheon or should it become a dinner to allow more merchants to attend. Another meeting will be held at a later date to decide. Committee members were encouraged to continue working on silent auction items.

With no additional business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:05.

Respectfully submitted,

Lori Powell

Secretary